Gore wanted to put the surplus in a "lockbox" - sort of like those savings accounts that average Americans are supposed to build up for themselves, but, to the enduring consternation of sages such as Greenspan, they never seem to build.

The venerable comedy institution has been known to move the cultural dial with some of its depictions, whether it was the spring sketch that famously declared the media to be "in the tank" for Barack Obama or its 2000 impersonation of Al Gore as a "lockbox" - brandishing scold.

Under the agreement, the developers also gave Anglo Irish a so-called lockbox provision, where rent payments starting this month are sent to an address controlled by the bank, rather than to an account controlled by the developers.

When I woke up, I remembered how Al Gore was viciously mocked for his "lockbox" campaign theme, everywhere from SNL skits to mainstream debate coverage: "He must have used the word 'lockbox' about 20 times."